


How Do You Pick Up the Threads of An Old Life?

by Lif61 (UltimateFandomTrash)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Book 3: Fire, Friendship, Gen, POV Aang (Avatar), Scars, Support, Tea, Validation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25588336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateFandomTrash/pseuds/Lif61
Summary: Aang feels disconnected from himself now that he has scars that ruined his tattoos. He doesn't know who to seek help from, but then he realizes that Zuko might understand. Zuko does what he can to offer his support.
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 134





	How Do You Pick Up the Threads of An Old Life?

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I titled this after a _Lord of the Rings_ quote. I just couldn't help myself. It fit so perfectly.
> 
> Enjoy! Aang and Zuko are such good friends. I love it.

Aang didn’t know who to approach. Who could possibly understand him? Who could understand the pain of his scars? Perhaps Zuko could, but there was more to it than that.

The burn scars — they obscured his tattoo. Had obliterated part of it. And along with it, his last remaining connection to his people. What was he supposed to _do?_

Momo was with him, lying on Aang’s torso, cooing in his sleep. And Aang was laid out on the beach at Ember Island near the house he and the team were staying at.

Katara was out by the water, training. Sokka was with Suki, Toph was practicing sandbending. Where was Zuko?

The sudden urge to seek him out came upon him, and Aang found himself gently picking up Momo, lying him on the soft sand without waking him, and heading up towards the house. Zuko could be by the front entrance, or perhaps in the courtyard.

“Zuko!” Aang called, as he searched for him.

His back and foot twinged, ached, and he felt wrong. This feeling left him searching frantically, calling from room to room. “Zuko! ZUKO!”

Aang opened a door to a bedroom, and Zuko was just sitting up from his bed resting against the far wall, rubbing at his face.

“Ugh, _what?_ ” he asked, voice grumpier than usual thanks to having been asleep just a few moments ago.

Aang rubbed the back of his head, and tensed, blushing apologetically.

“Oh, were you sleeping?”

“No, I was training,” Zuko responded sarcastically, sitting up fully now, blankets pulled up to his lap.

Aang gave a nervous laugh, and then turned.

“Uh… I’ll leave you to it then.”

As he was about to close the door, his friend said, “Wait, come back.”

Anxiety prickling in him, Aang turned, and he found Zuko looking at him inquisitively.

“What is it?”

“Oh, uh… it’s nothing really,” Aang said, now feeling stupid for searching out Zuko.

Why would he care? Why would any of them care?

It was just a scar.

It didn’t matter that his tattoos were no longer connected along his body.

They wouldn’t understand.

“See you later, hotman,” Aang said, voice too high-pitched, trying to back out the door again.

In an instant, Zuko rose from the bed, and he swiftly crossed the room with an advanced firebending move (minus the fire), and grabbed Aang by the front of his robes.

Aang looked up at him, another laugh fueled by nerves leaving him.

Zuko seemed to realize what he had done, and he let Aang go, walking away. Aang took this as his cue to enter the room.

“Sorry,” Zuko apologized.

“No, no need. It’s, uh… It’s okay.”

“What do you need to talk about?” Zuko asked. “Should I make some tea?” Suddenly his face seemed to glow with some inner light, and it made Aang relax. “I’m not as good as Uncle, but I’m sure I’d do alright.”

“Yeah. Yeah, tea sounds nice.”

So he and Zuko went down to the kitchen, and once they were kneeling at the low table with their separate cups (Zuko had made jasmine), they began to talk.

“So… you have a scar,” Aang started dumbly.

Zuko glared at him over his own cup of tea.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he threw out.

“No, no. Nothing!” Aang immediately responded. “Just that… you’d get it, right? I-I have scars from-from Azula, so I thought…”

Zuko seemed to calm, had more tea, and then lowered his cup. Aang now felt comfortable enough to drink his own.

_It’s just Zuko,_ he told himself. _He won’t hurt you. And besides, he’s a teenager with emotions too. He might understand._

So, Aang decided to plow on.

“My scars, well, the one on my back… it got rid of part of my tattoos. I don’t feel… connected anymore.”

Zuko just nodded sagely, and was looking down into his steaming cup.

“I know how you feel. I don’t have the connection you do with spirituality, and probably wouldn’t ever be able to earn tattoos if I had been an Air Nomad, but I think I understand. My scar — it told me I lost my honor. It… It _changed_ me. Once you get hurt like that, you’re different. There’s no going back.”

“And how do you deal with it?” Aang asked.

Zuko seemed thoughtful, and Aang drank his tea as he waited.

“I’m not sure,” he responded honestly. “The entire time, my uncle was trying to help me, but I pushed him away.” His face fell with shame, and he looked away. “I still haven’t made amends for that.” There was a pause, as if he was silently promising himself something. “But being back with my father, it showed me that he was wrong, and I think facing him — I don’t know — it healed me somewhat. And then I took up with you.”

“Wait, me?” Aang asked, suddenly surprised. “I help?”

Zuko smiled warmly. “You’re the Avatar. Of course. And the whole team helps too, though I would never tell them that.”

Aang smiled. “Secret’s safe with me!”

After rubbing at the back of his neck, and trying to have more tea, but finding it bitter and tasteless though it had been warm and soothing a second ago, he admitted, “Before Azula shot me, I-I cleared my chakras. I mastered the Avatar State. But now… with these scars, I don’t feel like me. I feel disconnected, weaker. There’s something wrong, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“Scars like that don’t fade,” Zuko told him. “I’m sorry.”

“Then what do I do?” Aang asked, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. “I’m supposed to face the Fire Lord and save the world, and master bending, but I can’t even feel like myself! My tattoos are ruined. My nation is gone. I’m scarred, I-I…” Tears were streaming down his face now. “I don’t know what to do!”

Zuko just went around to sit beside Aang and though Aang was simultaneously wiping tears from his face and trying to hide them, Zuko took one of his hands and put the cup of tea in it.

“Drink,” he told him, voice soft. “It’ll help.”

Aang held back a sob, his throat and chest aching, but then he was able to lift the cup to his lips and drink. Slowly, the sweet flavor of jasmine tea was coming back to him.

“I know it’s hard,” Zuko said. “And I know what it’s like to not know who you are. But scars are just that: scars. They mark you on the outside, but you get to decide who you want to be on the inside. Who do you want to be, Aang?”

“I want to be the Avatar,” he admitted in a weak voice.

“Then be the Avatar. And be yourself. You say your tattoos are ruined, but they run deeper than your skin. I know they do. You’re the great hope of what was once your nation. They’re still there, in you. At least… I think that’s what Uncle would say, and he’s always right.”

Aang gave a weak laugh, though a few more tears fell.

“You’re still yourself, Aang — changed, but… yourself. You can find that connection to yourself and your people again.”

“How?”

“Sometimes it just takes tea and friendship.”

Aang smiled at Zuko, and sipped from his tea.

Part of him feeling empty, but another part now feeling whole from confiding in someone and being met with unyielding support, he exhaled, letting the emotions just be.

“I have both those, then,” he said. “Zuko, I’m glad you’re with us now.”

“Yeah, me too.”

And he looked to the side, and all Aang could see of his face was his scar. But it wasn’t ugly. It wasn’t unfortunate. It wasn’t pitiful. It was just Zuko. Maybe Aang could be just Aang again.

**Author's Note:**

> Eff, now I want jasmine tea.


End file.
